What does AI adoption look like at their organizations?

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Businesses welcome AI to the team

For many, there are two distinct eras of generative AI: before ChatGPT and after ChatGPT.

Adoption of the tool after its November 2022 release to the public set records. Overnight, it seemed the entire world — or close to it — was using generative AI in one way or another. But how closely does that impression match with reality? We asked executives to walk us through AI adoption in their organizations.

Almost all organizations have had some level of adoption of AI in the past 12 months: 64% of executives say their organizations have seen moderate to widespread adoption of AI, followed by 34% of executives who say AI adoption is limited. Only 2% of executives describe AI adoption as nonexistent.

This level of adoption is happening despite signals of possible friction. Executives rate the ease of integrating AI technology at their organizations as 6.4 on a scale of 0 (not difficult) to 10 (extremely difficult), suggesting the effort is a moderately difficult undertaking.

Levels of adoption

Widespread: Nearly all teams use at least some AI.
Moderate: Many teams use AI.
Limited: A few teams use AI.
Nonexistent: No teams use AI.

Executives in EMEA report slightly more widespread (19%) and moderate (50%) levels of AI adoption when compared with APAC and AMER.

Most executives who see their organizations having moderate to widespread adoption of AI are from the technology industry, followed by finance and banking and professional services.

A strong majority of executive teams, consistently across regions, are either somewhat or very aligned on AI adoption and integration. The level of alignment among leaders could impact how widespread AI adoption is within an organization.

Out of the respondents who report widespread AI adoption, 81% characterize their executive teams as very aligned on AI. While this data doesn’t establish causation, it suggests a shared vision — clearly and effectively communicated from the leadership team to employees — could be a boon to organizations as they seek to bring more AI capabilities into the fold successfully.

An integral component of AI adoption is creating guidance for employees that establishes and communicates the appropriate use of AI tools.

Fifty-eight percent of executives — led by those in EMEA at 67% — report having developed guidance for employees on AI usage. Another 32% say they plan to do so in the next 12 months. The remaining 10% say they have not developed any guidance.

Employee guidance is another area where a unified executive team could make an impact. Respondents with aligned executive teams are more likely to say their companies have created AI-usage guidance for employees.

Even the degree of alignment could have an influence: 77% of respondents who report having a very aligned executive team say their organizations have developed guidance, compared with 54% of respondents who characterize their executive team as somewhat aligned.

When asked how informed their respective organization’s workforce is about AI-driven threats, more than two-thirds of survey respondents (67%) suggest their workforces are either very informed or somewhat informed about AI-driven threats, with the highest levels seen in EMEA organizations.

Executive takeaways: What it takes to successfully adopt and integrate AI

Respondents shared their views on what elements are critical to an organization successfully adopting and integrating AI.

“A focus on risk identification, mitigation, and management is needed to ensure that AI adoption works within the boundaries of acceptable risk. Secondly, a realistic set of expectations and appropriate metrics for measuring progress and performance are needed.” (CIO, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, APAC)

“Proceeding with caution and level-setting expectations early on. New tech can be dangerous if not adopted appropriately, and company secrets, drift, and hallucinations need to be high on the list of concerns.” (CSO/CISO, Technology, AMER)

“Having a deep understanding of the SWOT matrix for the AI applications in the target segment is key. You need to know what you are getting into and weigh the risk-versus-reward ratio.” (CTO, Energy, Mining, Oil & Gas, APAC)

AI adoption, a closer look

As the AI landscape evolves, so does organizations’ use of the technology, from bolstering security measures to enhancing customer experiences. We asked executives about the extent to which AI is being used (if at all) for security purposes, in customer-facing products, and by internal teams.

Across the business

AI is being used to some degree for security purposes at 71% of surveyed executives’ companies, with more than half (59%) of executives characterizing the use as moderate, with specific projects or initiatives.

AI is also making its way into customer-facing products, services, and features: 85% of respondents say they use AI in consumer-facing offerings. Of that group, 72% of executives report moderate (58%) or extensive (14%) integration.

At the workforce level

When asked how their teams are currently using AI, executives report the most common use case is automation and process optimization (72%), followed by predictive analytics and forecasting (62%).

In EMEA and APAC, the top AI use case is automation and process optimization. In AMER, it’s natural language processing (NLP) and understanding.

Overall, CIOs report fewer unique use cases at their organizations than CTOs and CISOs, notably focusing their efforts on coding and software development, personalized recommendations, and computer vision and analysis.